Technology lets you follow, imagine how you'll be represented in Montana Legislature

When it comes to political stories that bore you to tears, it's hard to beat "redistricting," the dreadfully arcane process of drawing new legislative-district boundaries in Montana every 10 years.

Who wants or has time to page through reams of district maps, to see how newly drawn lines might carve up your neighborhood, or put you in a district that you never knew the number of in the first place? Only those who are paid to do it.

But this year, thanks to some spiffy new technology, you can use the Internet to pinpoint your house, neighborhood and city -- or anywhere in the state -- and see how they're affected by the five proposed plans for new districts, which will take effect for 10 years, starting in 2014.

These mapping tools, available on the Montana Legislature's website http://leg.mt.gov/css/Committees/Int ... ng/maps.asp , make it all the easier for any citizen to have detailed information if you're telling people drawing the districts how you feel about it.

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